Tom,
Actually two, first: anytime a wheel/stub axle comes out of the plastic insulator, put a drop of CA in the stub and re insert into the insulator. Maybe the best use of super glue, once that sets do the other end. If you need them I have some Plastruct tubing with the correct ID and a little bit too much OD to replace the black insulator. They are almost always split.
Barry - BBT
I use brass tubing, but then I don’t have track power to cause a short.
The most important thing to do, when replacing the wheel, is to check the back-to-back spacing. Use the Arasto wheel gauge. If you don’t check this wheel spacing, you are asking for derailments, especially on switches.
I went with the super glue solution. Brass would work well too as I’m all battery. Wondering why a set of coppertops only runs it a couple hours instead of all day like they used to. Loco runs smooth and draws the same .4 amps under load that it always did. Maybe I’ll just drop one of my big IED batteries into the combine.
It sounds to me like your batteries are getting “tired.” I need to replace the batteries on my Mogul because the batteries are about 5 years old and ready to be recycled!
It runs on Duracell Coppertops, so the batteries are ALWAYS brand new.
FLASH ***
It now runs on my big 4AH “IED” batteries hidden in my combine. Just finished the conversion. So now it’s my passenger engine and doesn’t pull freight, though I could easily hide one of these batteries in a freight car.
I had a 4-6-0 that I put a NCE DCC into, on the second run I thought the smoke stack had really started working!! My Grandson was like look Grandpa it is really working now look at the smoke! When we took it apart the wires from the front truck had fried good! Replaced the wires with a heavier gauge wire and now it runs really good! All I could ever figure was it shorted going thru the switch!